Alpha island

Map of Alpha-1 testing zone.^[1]^[2] Image credit: Axiom: Angelcry

The Alpha One map including nodes, dungeons, quest givers, POI, teleporters, and camps will be explorable! Note that this is only a small portion of the world of Verra.^[3]

Alpha-1 testing tropical zone featuring a war beast and a tribe of pigmy goblins.^[4]

This is a rather large tropical area; and what we use some of the creatures for is establishing character for different parts of this tropical place. So that even though it's the same biome, it feels different when you are going from place to place based on what's there and how those things are interacting with the environment.^[5] – Jeffrey Bard

Alpha-1 testing took place in a zone to the north west of the world map.^[6] This zone has many islands and a mainland area.^[7]

The Alpha-1 starting area is set in the ruins of an Pyrian divine gateway.^[8]
There are 12 different (sub)zones in the Alpha-1 testing location.^[5]
The Alpha-1 map was approximately 70 km² of playable area.^[9]
- This was previously estimated to be approximately 100 km² in size.^[5]^[7] This was about 17% of the total world size.^[10]
- Previous estimates range between 20-25% of the map.^[5]^[11]^[12]
- Traversing the width of the zone (10 km) on a mount would take about 30 minutes.^[13]
Alpha island (also called Alpha-0 island) was the first open-world testing zone for Alpha-1 participants.^[14]
There are approximately 4 biomes in Alpha-1: Flood plains, Desert (Desert), Snowy mountains, Forest.^[15]^[16]
- A tropics biome was added for the December 2020 Alpha-1 preview tests.^[6]^[4]^[5]
Temporary teleportation points will be present in early tests until ships are introduced later in the alpha testing.^[17]

World map

Updated Ashes of Creation map.^[18]^[19]

The new world map in all its 1,200 square kilometer glory. So you're gonna see some names here- a little bit of a reveal of some of these locations in these areas- and you're also of course seeing similar biomes that are present as well. But more importantly what you are seeing is the orientation of these continents and these islands that are facilitating specific types of inter-continental trade gameplay; and they support the relevance of these caravans moving across the land mass to locations that will now incorporate these harbor areas, which aren't identified on the map here... But the important part was providing a lot of coastal naval gameplay between these zones and trade routes between land base.^[19] – Steven Sharif

Alpha-2 work-in-progress map UI.^[20]

The world of Verra features an in-game viewable world map. This map is not randomly generated, and begins covered in a fog of war.^[21] Players will not be able to see the world until they have explored it or gathered information about it. The world is also full of imperfect information, which will require the player to act on it for verification.^[22]

For example, you may hear a rumor in a tavern that tells you the location of a cave full of weak Kobolds, but this was not accurate as the rumor was started by well-equipped bandits in order to waylay overconfident adventurers.^[22]

Information about the world will be presented directly to players through the world map UI as it is gathered.^[23]^[24]
- Node tax rates will be visible on the world map by hovering over a node location on the UI.^[25]
- The map UI will potentially incorporate player created location markers that are visible by other party members.^[26]
- Previously, detailed information about the world was only available through the Library unique node building.^[27]

Not every server will share the same map, as player decisions will vary between servers.^[28]^[29]^[24]

The map will have geographical choke points caused by non-traversable obstacles (such as Mountains).^[30]^[31]^[32]

Even though we're an open-world that doesn't mean that from a design perspective, especially with the way our economic systems work, that we will want to create Geographic choke points.^[31] – Steven Sharif

Some of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.

Zones in Ashes of Creation will cater to all levels.^[33]

World size

1,200 km² (square kilometers) is the expected total world size of Verra at launch, including land (480 km²) and water/ocean (750 km²), but excluding the size of the Underrealm.^[19]

This has increased from the previously stated total size of 480 km² including land and water/ocean^[34]^[35]^[36]; but excluding an additional ~100 km² of Underrealm.^[37]
- The Underrealm did not increase "too much" in size.^[38]

The reason given for expanding the map size was to better accommodate Naval content and to reduce the overall content density in the world.^[19]

The purpose of it becoming bigger is as I said to make sure that density isn't overwhelming: that it isn't everywhere I look there is immediately something. I have no opportunity to see areas of the world that are expansive and are just wanderlust adventure feeling. Everything was sitting on top of you, POIs and nodes and houses and everything. It was like an urban area everywhere. But we wanted to expand that because a large portion of the game is a sandbox element; it's coupled with a lot of curated content but it's that sandbox element.^[19] – Steven Sharif

The shape of the continents has also changed and two new large islands have been introduced.^[19]

Nodes

There will be 85 regular node locations at launch with 15 additional castle nodes (5 castles x 3 castle nodes each)^[39]^[40]^[41] for a total of 100 nodes.^[42]

Previously the developers estimated 103 regular node locations with 15 additional castle nodes for a total of 118 nodes.^[43]^[44]^[39]^[40]^[41]
- This decrease in node count does not affect the amount of available player housing, or the estimated server capacity.^[45]^[46]

We have moved from a 103 nodes to 85 nodes; and there's a few reasons for that. One, when we were doing the calculations behind how- in Alpha 2 and in the game- we want these vassal structures to exist, we had more nodes than what felt meaningful and we wanted to condense some of that those curated story arcs and hooks into the environment and realm around the areas to be more bountiful at a lesser node value: meaning bringing down the node count so that we can increase the richness of each of those nodes more than what was at 103.^[42] – Steven Sharif

There were 9 node locations in Alpha-1.^[47]
Node locations are subject to change prior to Beta-1.^[47]

Starting areas

Alpha-1 early preview starting area.^[48]

There is no railroaded driven theme park experience here. You will have the opportunity to create your own destiny in that regard, which means you don't have to necessarily follow the quest line nor do you have to participate in events or experiences around the starting area. Now it may be more beneficial to do that; and in that regard I guess there could be a meta around doing that, but you could branch out proceed to other areas and do different content.^[49] – Steven Sharif

Alpha-0 Empyrean starting area concept art.

Starting areas (starting zones) are located in the ruined cities of the four ancient races of Verra.^[50]

Starting areas are located near one of the four divine gateways where players spawn into the world.^[50]^[51]
- The Tulnar have a starting area without a divine gateway.^[52]^[53] They have the same option of starting at any of the divine gateways as other races.^[54]
- Starting areas have some distance between them.^[52]

Starting areas are not part of the node system.^[55]^[51]

Each race has its own starting area.^[56]
- Players may choose their starting gateway regardless of their choice of race.^[57]^[52]
- Points of interest exist that represent Tulnar NPC structures in a similar fashion to the starting areas around divine gateways.^[51]

Starting areas include expeditionary NPC settlements that serve as initial quest origination points.^[51] Lore-wise, these settlements represent scouts that were sent ahead of the main expedition back to Verra.^[58]
- These settlements are designed to acclimatize new players entering the world.^[58]
- While it may be advantageous to do so, there is no requirement for players to play through any specific starter zone content.^[49]

A problem that a lot of MMOs have is that those starting areas become just vacant of players and it's so sad because the greatest aspect of an MMO is that community that you get to experience, so one of the great things about the node system is that it really works from new player acquisition standpoint, where these nodes tend to develop larger near the starting location areas around the world; and it brings these players back to those locations if they're citizens and want services within those cities. So, as new players enter the world they're going to actually be surrounded most likely by more population because people are coming back to those larger nodes.^[59] – Steven Sharif

Divine gateways

Empyrean divine gateway concept art.

When you play the MMORPG you're going to be stepping through what are called these divine gateways from a planet called Sanctus and Sanctus was really a safe haven that was forethought by the Goddess of Fate and Creation as a sanctuary to provide the people of Verra who could survive the fall, the apocalypse, the exodus essentially.^[60] – Steven Sharif

Divine gateways are portals located in the ruined cities of the four ancient races of Verra.^[50]

Divine gateways are where players first arrive in Ashes of Creation.^[61]
- Each divine gateway is in proximity to one or more starting area.^[50]
Players can choose their starting gateway.^[57] This choice is not restricted by their choice of race.^[52]
- Tulnar characters have the same option of starting at any of the divine gateways as other races.^[54]^[52]^[53]
The divine gateways were created by the Goddess of Creation in response to a warning from the Goddess of Fate that The Ancients and The Others would return from exile and seek retribution for their defeat at the hands of The Seven gods.^[60]^[62]

Where players start, they enter this portal from another world called Sanctus. Sanctus is a place of no magic, low technology; and players are the first expeditioners that are coming through this portal into the world of Verra.^[63] – Jeffrey Bard

Zones of influence

Nodes are pre-set locations, wrapped in a zone of influence (ZOI).^[64]

Every Node is given purview over a predefined geographic area called a Zone of Influence (ZoI). No matter where you go in the world, whether you’re questing, gathering, or raiding, you’ll be helping determine which nodes will develop, and what Zones of Influence will expand. Any area that a Node controls is considered its Zone of Influence, including Vassal Nodes, and all Vassal Nodes exist within the Zone of Influence of their Parent Node.^[43] – Margaret Krohn

Every node is given purview over a predefined geographic area called a Zone of influence (ZOI). Player activity within the ZOI is weighted and counted toward a particular node’s advancement.^[64]

The main thing that differentiates us from other MMOs is that we have a living, breathing, reactive world... Our world is separated into zones, which are then separated into what we call nodes. Nodes are sort of invisible zones of influence that listen to everything that a player does; so as players gain experience from killing things, gain experience from doing quests, gain experience through crafting things, the node is also gaining that experience. Once a node gains enough experience it levels up and then starts to attract NPCs to it .^[65] – Jeffrey Bard

By undertaking familiar activities, such as questing, gathering and raiding, players have agency in determining which nodes in the world will develop.^[66]

Each Node can form into towns, but are limited by their neighbors. The Nodes have different levels of advancement. There can only be so many of each level. Think of this as advanced settlements needing more elbow room. Nodes encompass more land as they grow and will require more effort to be sustained. This system is a main driver for change in the world because it creates scarcity. As Nodes advance in stages of growth they will lock out neighboring Nodes from progressing, and will absorb their zones of influence.^[64]

Zones of influence connect fully across the world without any gaps.^[67]

There is not a space where you will move in to do something and no node will get that experience.^[67] – Steven Sharif

Underrealm nodes and nodes directly above them are considered adjacent but do not exist in the same ZOI.^[68]^[69]^[70]
Up to one fifth of the world will be encompassed within the ZOI of a Metropolis. The many vassal nodes within a ZOI's "border" could end up looking like a country or nation.^[71]

Zones and progression

Dungeons, Raids, World bosses, Mobs, Quests, Events, Resources, Narratives and other content within a node's ZOI will have a diverse level range; but will scale with the advancement of that node and its racial influence.^[72]^[33]^[43]

Portions of the spawn tables (for mobs and resources) are static and other portions are dynamic and adapt to node development.^[73]

We don’t have a strictly level 25 zone. Instead, that zone might have some level 10 creatures near the road, some level 20 creatures deep in the forest, and some level 30 creatures up the mountain. These ratios will change based on the Nodes that inform them, becoming generally more dangerous as the Node grows. All this civilization attracts the attention of Things-That-Should-Not-Be. This does not mean that wilderness areas are safe, by any means. Some may be safe-er, but all will have dangers that even the most experienced traveler needs to watch out for.^[74] – Steven Sharif

Coastal nodes

Pre-alpha naval concept.^[75]

There will be healthy amounts of sea content within the coastlines of the continents that does not fall into the "open sea" area.^[76] – Steven Sharif

There will be nodes along the coast and on islands.^[77]

These nodes will have specific water oriented influences, services, and questlines, that relate to the seas.^[77]
- There is a healthy amount of sea content within the coastlines of the continents that does not fall into the open sea area.^[76]

The open sea does not contribute to the advancement of coastal nodes, even if it falls within the ZOI of the node. This is subject to change during Alpha-2 testing.^[78]

Coastal nodes change the spawn tables of the nearby water content and can also trigger specific events.^[79]

Coastal nodes are not directly siegeable by sea. Instead, harbors offer objective-based naval gameplay during node sieges.^[80]^[81]^[82]

We've gone back and forth a little bit on whether or not the design intent for sieging of nodes is intended to include, for certain nodes, the naval component. The concern there was that it would be a difficult thing to balance around that particular node having accessibility from the water for those types of defenses. So what we've presented as an opportunity where harbors are the focal point of those naval interactions; and during sieges you are aware that nodes have certain objectives, which have ramifications and can influence the outcome and/or the ongoings of a particular against a node. And if one of those objectives is a naval objective, because that node might own a harbor, which is a point of interest that gets adopted by a node which advances far enough around it. So you might have one harbor and five nodes that can own that harbor. And the first to hit the village stage adopts the harbor. Then that can become an objective point during a siege that has naval interaction. So that's the direction we've moved towards, rather than allowing the naval component to interact directly with sieging the node itself as opposed to being a part of the objective-based gameplay that exists for a node siege.^[80] – Steven Sharif